FALL 2015 – Travel Tips for Volunteers
Many of you have teams from your church traveling on mission trips or other church sponsored projects this time of year. Clergy, church staff, and/or laity may have travel expenses that will help lower their taxes next year. Here are a few tips on travel while giving your services to your church:
- Qualified Charity – In order to deduct your costs, volunteer work must be for a qualified charity. Churches are automatically a qualified charity.
- Out of Pocket expenses – Some costs you pay to give your services may be deductible, including the cost of travel. The costs must be necessary while you are away from home giving your services, and must be unreimbursed, directly connected with the services, expenses you had only because of the services you gave, and not personal, family, or living expenses.
- Genuine and Substantial Duty – Volunteer services must be real and substantial throughout the trip. You cannot deduct expenses if you only have nominal duties or no duties for significant parts of the trip.
- Value of Time or Service – You can’t deduct the value of your services that you give, including income lost while you work as an unpaid volunteer.
- Deductible Travel Expenses – These include air, rail or bus transportation, car expenses, lodging costs, cost of meals, taxi or other transportation to/from airport or station.
- Nondeductible Travel – You can’t deduct your costs if a significant part of the trip involves recreation or a vocation.
Clergy and Church Staff may be able to deduct unreimbursed, eligible travel expenses as an employee job expense, whereas the cost of meals must be kept separate from the cost of other travel expense.